Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd.

Since the play has first opened in Uris theater on March 1, 1979, the tale of the mad barber who butchers his clients to serve as meat pies has been attended by countless fans. Stephen Sondheim wrote the darkly humorous lyrics and haunting score. It won the 1979 Tony Award for Best Musical.

The play is set in Victorian England. With its sparse dialogue it was virtually an opera. In fact it has steadily gained attention by opera companies as a viable piece. “Sweeney Todd” is based on what many consider to be a true story.

Sweeney Todd" begins as the company, Citizens of London, gather for a no-frills burial, dumping a body in a bag and a can of human ashes into a shallow grave. The company sings The Ballad of Sweeney Todd, which asks the audience to "attend the tale" of "the demon barber of Fleet Street," who "served a dark and a vengeful god." (The Ballad will be sung several times during the evening, as the company reappears after several scenes to comment on the action.) After Todd himself rises from his grave and joins the chorus, the story begins.

It is London, 1845. At the docks of the city, a small ship returns bearing two men: Anthony Hope and Sweeney Todd. Anthony is a cheerful young sailor, Todd a grim, hulking figure in his late 40s. Anthony is excited to see his home again and joyfully exclaims that there's No Place Like London, but Todd is despondent and oddly distracted. "You are young," he tells Anthony. "Life has been kind to you. You will learn." They are accosted by a ragged, half-mad beggar woman, who alternately begs for money and offers herself for prostitution. Todd drives her off when she thinks she recognizes him. When Anthony questions him on his melancholy, Todd replies that London is the source of it. It is the pit of the world, and he has seen terrible things. For example, many years ago, a young barber was destroyed by the city, whose only crime was having a beautiful wife (The Barber and his Wife). It is a terrible, sad story, and one without an end. The two men part ways, Todd telling Anthony that he can find him in Fleet Street.

Todd travels to Fleet Street, and enters the empty Meat Pie Shop run by Mrs. Nellie Lovett, a vigorous, slatternly woman of 40. Mrs. Lovett is understandably surprised to see a customer, given that her pies are the self-admitted Worst Pies in London, because she can’t afford the meat. She plies Todd with rotten pies and flat ale, not to mention chatter about her business, her competitor, Mrs. Mooney, and the state of her health. When she stops to take a breath, Todd asks her about the empty room above the shop. If times are so hard, why doesn't she rent it out? People won't go near it, she says. "Years ago, something happened up there, something... not very nice." It seems that fifteen years earlier a talented young barber, Benjamin Barker, had lived with his wife and baby daughter in the room above, but one day the beautiful Mrs. Barker attracted the attentions of the wealthy Judge Turpin. The Judge and his assistant, the Beadle pursued the Wife, but she remained obstinate. So the Judge had her husband arrested on a false charge, after which he raped the Poor Thing. + The show opens with the Company singing The Ballad of Sweeney Todd in which they "tell the tale." During the course of the song, we see chorus members handing dead bodies in a sack over to the oven.

At this, Todd can take no more and he cries out, confirming Mrs. Lovett’s suspicions: "So it is you, Benjamin Barker" He has returned from the penal camps in Australia after fifteen years to find his wife and child. But Mrs. Lovett has only bad news. His wife, Lucy, took poison, and his daughter, Johanna, was adopted by the selfsame Judge who raped her mother and destroyed her father. Todd swears revenge, but the practical Mrs. Lovett is more concerned with Todd's survival in the city and a source of income for him. But she has a way for him to keep himself afloat. She has kept his razors, the finest in England. He can be a barber again. Todd clutches the instruments and sings softly to his "friends" of the ruby-red that will soon adorn their silver sheen, while Mrs. Lovett quietly reminds him that she is his friend as well. (My Friends) Todd stands up, a mad gleam in his eye, and holds his razor aloft. "At last," he cries, "my arm is complete again!" (The Ballad of Sweeney Todd, Reprise: "Swing Your Razor Wide, Sweeney)

The Scene changes to the street outside Judge Turpin’s house. Fifteen years have passed, and Benjamin Barker’s daughter has grown into a stunningly beautiful young woman. As Johanna stands at her window, looking at the wares of a bird seller and wondering why the caged birds still sing (Green Finch and Linnet Bird), Anthony Hope wanders past and is immediately struck by the girl’s beauty. (Ah, Miss) After finding out who she is from the passing beggar woman, who again offers herself to him, he buys a bird for her, and she comes down to retrieve it. Their hands touch, and it is love at first sight (Johanna). But their youthful passion is interrupted by the return of the Judge, who sends Anthony packing and whose affectionate attitude towards Johanna is not entirely fatherly. But Anthony has fallen hard, and he swears to free Johanna from the tyrannical rule of her guardian.